“We’re At The Beginning Of A Revolution” - Jimmy Carr - #1135

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
How many shows did you do last year?

**Jimmy Carr** (0:02)
Maybe, oh, god, I don't know. 250, 300, something like that? It's the two shows a night thing that ramps up the numbers. And that's been the big kind of innovation in my touring.
There's no line, I think it was BB. King said it, I do the shows for free, they pay me to travel. And I kind of feel like that. I feel like getting there is the hassle, doing the show is a joy. And so I do a show at seven, and then a show at 9.30, in most places. So it's that thing of like, it's one for me, one for HMRC.
Right? One goes to the tax man, the other one's just all for online. Yeah, pretty much these days.

**Chris Williamson** (0:40)
Yeah, it would definitely be after that much scrutiny. What's your relationship with worry like? Do you get overwhelmed? That's a pretty intense schedule.

**Jimmy Carr** (0:49)
Oh no, I mean, not at all. I think that thing about, if anything, that decreases the stress level. Doing that many shows makes you less nervous, because it's like being an airline pilot. It's about hours in the sky. So if you spend that much time on stage, and then I film everything now, so in the shows, you never get bored of it because a good third of it is just that night, just that show, and it changes all the time. That's interesting. I used to think about jealousy and envy a lot, but the idea that they're different.
And one is, I don't want that person to have that thing, and it's a really dark energy, right? And then there's envy, which is telling you what you want. You see someone's got something, you go, oh wow, I want that. And I remember looking at like Matt Reif and Andrew Schultz and their video content online, and they were kind of blowing up and going, I should do that. I should take someone on the road and film it and just copy that methodology.
And I did it, and I've absolutely loved it. It's really kind of changed the way that I gig.

**Chris Williamson** (1:54)
Why is it the case that you're not, I mean, I've been backstage with you before you go out, and within minutes before you're about to go on stage, snacking on an apple, not really thinking about, and then going out and performing in front of 7,000 people, is then just reps now under the belts that nerves kind of don't kick in?

**Jimmy Carr** (2:13)
I think it's also like, it's quite self-selecting, being a comedian, at sort of at that level where people are, you know, if I play a club, then people have just gone out to see comedy. But I'm not in the entertainment business, I'm not in the comedy business, I'm in the Jimmy Carr business. And people have come out to see my show, so they kind of know what they're going to get. If anyone's offended at this point, it's like they bought tickets for a horror movie, and they're complaining they're scared.
It's like, okay, dumb dumb. It's like, it doesn't, it doesn't count. It's like, so it's also that thing of like, the moments you can have with the crowd now, are because they've seen it online, because they know what you do. They're expecting it, okay? Oh wow, I got coffee. Can't believe my luck, thank you.

**Chris Williamson** (2:54)
The service is fantastic. There's this line that made me think about the level of intensity perhaps that you go through with your touring. Your life does not need to be easier, it needs to be simpler. Your system is designed to handle stress and challenge, but not complication. You probably handle hard things pretty well, but feel overwhelmed when they become messy. Do not attribute to difficulty that which can be explained by complexity. It seems like if what you're doing is touring and focusing on touring and doing the live shows and getting to the next show and being in a good mood and performing well, there's one thing all the way as opposed to trying to do that while number two and number three and number four and number five.

**Jimmy Carr** (3:31)
Well, I think it's also that thing of it's not repetition. It's like how many gigs last year you go 250 or 300, and that sounds in a way boring, like it would be the same thing again and again. Actually, it's never repetition, it's iteration. So you're changing it subtly every time. You're changing the jokes, you're trying new jokes in every show. Every single show at the end of the show, you're trying new things. So it's very stimulating intellectually to be writing.